The present invention relates generally to the field of disaster recovery, and more particularly to providing predictive disaster recovery of cloud services.
Disaster recovery (DR) involves a set of policies and procedures to enable the recovery or continuation of vital technology infrastructure and systems following a natural disaster or man-made event. Disaster recovery focuses on the information technology (IT) systems supporting critical business functions, as opposed to business continuity, which involves keeping all essential aspects of a business functioning despite significant disruptive events. Disaster recovery is therefore a subset of business continuity. A business continuity plan (BCP) includes planning for non-IT related aspects such as key personnel, facilities, crisis communication and reputation protection, and should refer to the disaster recovery plan (DRP) for IT related infrastructure recovery/continuity. IT disaster recovery control measures can be classified into the following three types: preventive measures (controls aimed at preventing an event from occurring), detective measures (controls aimed at detecting or discovering unwanted events), and corrective measures (controls aimed at correcting or restoring the system after a disaster or an event). Good disaster recovery plan measures dictate that these three types of controls be documented and exercised regularly. Two important measureable objectives in a disaster recovery plan are the Recovery Time Objective (RTO) and the Recovery Point Objective (RPO). The RTO is the goal, measured in time, for how quickly an IT system is back online after a downtime event. The RPO is the goal, also measured in time, for the point in time to which data must be restored to resume services after a downtime event. RPO is often thought of as the time between the last data backup and the time a downtime event occurred.
Some of the current art utilizes advanced technology for disaster predicting. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 7,035,765 B2, titled Disaster Predicting Method, Disaster Predicting Apparatus, Disaster Predicting Program, and Computer-Readable Recording Medium Recorded with Disaster Predicting Program states the following: “A disaster predicting method, a disaster predicting apparatus, a disaster predicting program, and a computer-readable recording medium recorded with a disaster predicting program, which automatically order satellite image data based on periodically observed or predicted natural phenomenon, and also automatically analyze the obtained satellite image data to predict a disaster, thereby enabling to deal promptly with a disaster.” Requiring the use of satellite imagery may be a disadvantage for some datacenters.